The two biggest excuses I’ve heard from Apple, from fans, and from the media for thinking an iPod Video is not a good idea have been:

(Legal) content is too hard to come by, and too difficult to distribute.

Nobody wants to watch The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King on a 2.5" screen, assuming the battery even lasts that long.

Well, you’re all a bunch of twats.

Tricky licensing deals need not be negotiated with skeptical movie distributors, and people don’t need to wait four days for Dances With Wolves to finish downloading on their 56k modem. Battery life needn’t be a concern, and neither need the size of the screen. Be. A concern.

Four words: music videos, movie trailers. Forget your feature films.

iTunes is already crawling with music vids and trailers —and they’re offering them free— just not for download. Already the mystery and uncertainty surrounding content acquisition and distribution is shot to hell. Here’s an idea: stop streaming the full–length music videos and start bundling them with your music purchase. 99¢ just rose in value. Bung in an option to sync the latest movie trailers to your iPod, free, as they’re released, and Hollywood is suddenly being charged an arm and an additional leg for the primo up–close–and–personal advertising space in the palm of your hand. The videos are short on attention demand, short on download time, short on battery suck, and don’t really need to be watched on a big screen. What are you really missing out on with a two–and–a–half inch representation of Beyonce’s ass? You wanted bigger?